Stephen Colbert lashed out at his soon-to-be former employer, CBS, on Monday as he accused it of bowing to FCC pressure.
The Late Show host stated that the network refused to air his interview with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico from Texas after the Federal Communications Commission recently revised its conditions. During the Monday episode of his show, Colbert told the audience that James Talarico was supposed to appear on the show.
However, CBS’s lawyers told the crew they couldn’t book him, according to Forbes.
“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast,” Colbert announced.
His audience then booed at this news.
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Colbert also mentioned that he was barred from talking about Talarico’s absence from the episode or the reason behind it. “Then I was told (…) not only could I not have him on, I [also] could not mention me not having him on.”
“And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this,” he added. Colbert claimed that CBS yielded to pressure after the FCC recently decided to impose an “equal time” decree on talk shows.
Broadcast networks are now required to provide equal airtime to all legally qualified political candidates. However, interviews and talk shows were exempted from following this mandate. It all changed when Trump-appointed FCC chair Brandon Carr sent a direct notice to the broadcasting network, stating that talk shows will no longer qualify for this exemption.
The talk show host accused Carr directly of being biased. He slammed him with:
“Well, sir, you’re chairman of the FCC, so [a crude play on the agency’s initials]… because I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself.”
Colbert also pointed out that the same rule doesn’t seem to apply to right-leaning radio shows, despite the FCC managing radio as well.
This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.
His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert.
Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas. pic.twitter.com/BCev5jZbKc
— James Talarico (@jamestalarico) February 17, 2026
“Let’s just call this what it is: Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV. “He’s like a toddler with too much screen time. He gets cranky,” he mocked.
The comedian then proceeded to slam CBS for caving into the pressure, even though there are even though there are discussions about exempting late-night shows from this mandate. “Now, as I said, at this point, he’s just released a letter that says he’s thinking about doing away with the exception for late-night. He hasn’t done away with it yet.”
“But my network is unilaterally enforcing it as if he had… but I want to assure you, this decision is for purely financial reasons,” he concluded.
